Is God an imaginary character like Santa Claus? Portland event on Jan. 27

Is there any difference between Santa Claus and Jesus (the Jesus that Christians say is the God of the Bible)? According to most atheists, there is no difference. Just as there is no man at the North Pole making a list of naughty and nice kids, there’s no God in heaven that is all-knowing and all-seeing everything that you do. Of course, Christians would disagree and say that obviously there’s a God in heaven, or else none of us would be here. But what really is the case for thinking that God is just as fictitious (and a figment of the imagination) as Santa Claus?

Portland State University (PSU) Professor Peter Boghossian will give a talk entitled “Jesus, the Easter Bunny, and Other Delusions: Just Say No!” at PSU on Fri. 1-27-12 at 7 pm. For all details (time, place, updates, etc.), please see this website:
http://tinyurl.com/7elmgw4

Professor Boghossian claims to be interested in critical thinking, and along those lines he is inviting members of the audience to provide critical feedback in the Q&A time. Maybe Prof. Boghossian will give some new ideas to Christians; something they’ve never considered before? Or maybe a Christian in the audience may have some important feedback for Prof. Boghossian to help him see things in a different light?

I’m a former Christian, and I also organize routine and regularly scheduled (almost monthly) meetings between those of different faiths (and no faith) to come together and civilly discuss science/religion issues. In that vein, I’m happy to see others like Prof. Boghossian, in the interest of public education, to make available Q&A times for the general public. My meetings also have extensive Q&A times. In fact, it is frustrating to me that sermons at churches are almost always directed one-way with no chance for audience feedback (comments and questions). I mean, how can we really teach people and learn from each other if we are afraid to deal with their opinions in public?

At my next event, we will discuss whether the God of the Bible can be proven to exist or not. It will be held in Vancouver on Sunday 1-29-12 at 2 pm. All details are here:
http://tinyurl.com/4y92mnx

You can see participate in more of these free atheist/Christian debate/discussions on science and religion in the Beaverton area at this meetup website:
http://www.meetup.com/Westside-Science-Religion-Discussion-Group/

Some of these debates and discussions are online (free) at my YouTube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SecHummer